Event Notifications
The system sends notifications to the administrator when certain events occur. This can be done by email or by text messages (SMS). Those messages are usually just warnings, however, the administrator should check if there is a serious problem causing the problem that needs attention.
Settings
Admin email addresses: This setting controls where the PBX sends email notifications. In contrast to many other settings, the addresses must be separated by semicolons. This makes it possible to include space characters in the addresses, e.g. the names.
URL for sending text messages to cell phones: If this setting is used, the PBX will use it when sending out text messages. The setting may contain placeholders according to the following table. An example for a URL would behttp://sms.service.org/send?account=1234&password=secret&destination={to}&text={text-iso}.
| Variable | Content | Encoding |
|---|---|---|
| text | The text of the message | UTF-8 (URL) |
| text-iso | The text of the message | ISO/IEC_8859-1 (URL) |
| text-utf | The text of the message | UTF-8 (Hex) |
| text-json | The text of the message | JSON (UTF-8) |
| text-xml | The text of the message | XML (UTF-8) |
| to | Destination phone number as entered | URL |
| to-local | Destination in country code representation | URL |
| to-e164 | Destination in E164 notation | URL |
Setting up Bandwidth MMS
Bandwidth can send multimedia messages (MMS) instead of simple text messages, also known as SMS (short message service). The following settings can be use to achieve this:
HTTP Method for sending SMS messages: POST
URL for sending text messages to cell phones: https://api.catapult.inetwork.com/v1/users/ u-drteguds342dfsue2352sdf /messages where you need to copy the username from your Bandwidth account there. The username starts with a u-.
HTTP header for sending SMS: You need to include the authorization here, which is a base64-encoded username:password that you also get from your bandwidth account, and usually will look like like
txfsdfeufhhf3r2dusseucdq:wdsdngd33sgecsbdjs3xbrjwgnxdsgsnegsdssabefore the base64 encoding. The line then might look like this Content-type: application/json Authorization: Basic 3qshlfhasxfl3skyysiefqlyr3hq2m3fygxndha2dk3shk23gsksdfdgl234s2mowfmcos3rmcwsvnoxfznvso8=.
HTTP for sending voicemail SMS: The content is in JSON format and contains the following content
{"from": "+16171234567" ,"to": "+{to-e164}","text": "{text}","media":["{wav}"]} where you have to put the phone number there that was assigned by Bandwidth.
VoiceCloud Software API Setup
There are a few settings available specifically for the voicecloud API, which converts voicemail messages into text. This text is then included in the mailbox message and sent to the users email account. If you want to use the API, you need to set up an account with voicecloud for machine transcription. Customer ID: This is the customer ID provided by voicecloud.
Location of the API: The API location, for example http://api.voicecloud.com/apiy4.cgi.
Developer Key: The developer key provided by voicecloud.The VoiceCloud API setup can be set on per domain basis if you are a multi-tenant customer and wouldn't like this option to be provided to all of your domains. The setting for that can be controlled from the domain settings.
Although, the extensions on the selected domain cannot be excluded from being provided this service. In short, if a particular domain is selected for the VoiceCloud API setup, then all the extensions are enabled for this setting by default.
Messages
Send the midnight email about the CPU usage of the last day: This email contains important information about the resource usage of the PBX, including the CPU load and the packet load on the system. It is send at midnight of the system time zone.
When a call gets rejected because the CPU load was too high: The PBX rejects calls when there is too much CPU load for processing calls. This is important in order to avoid an overload of the system and degration of ongoing calls. The system may inform the administrators of the system about this important event.
When the status of a trunk changes (if selected in the trunk setting): A status change usually means that the Internet connection went down, or that other critical resources like the DNS server became unavailable. If the PBX is sending a lot of those events out, it means that the PSTN termination is unstable and must be fixed.
When the license will expire in less than 30 days: This email make sure that the administrator takes care about the server license. It is also sent out when only certain parts of the license expire, for example a 30-day trial on a specific feature.
When a registration status of an extension changes: Similar to the notification about a trunk status change, this notification may indicate problems with the stability of the network connection between the endpoint and the PBX or general problems with the endpoint (e.g. repeated crashes because of software issues).
When the system was restarted: After a restart the PBX sends out this notification. It might occur after a reboot, e.g. when power was lost. This notification implies that there was a time when the whole system was unavailable for a few minutes.
When a new recording is available on the file system: This is a pure informational notice that can be used to trigger the uploading of a new recording into a remote location, e.g. for transcription services.
When the allocation of a new CO-line failed and a call was rejected because of this: When this notification gets sent out, the number of available CO lines was exhaused on a SIP trunk. This does not neccessarily mean that there is a problem, but in many cases it means that the administrator should consider adding more CO lines to the trunk.
When a trunk failover event occurs: The PBX is able to re-route calls on backup trunks when a previous trunk was rejecting the call or when a timeout occured. Depending on the setup, this notification may be purely informational or an important indication that the primary trunk became unavailable, and needs further investigation.
When someone dials an emergency number: Calling the emergency number is an important event in many environments. This might be a message that should get a priority treatment in the email client. It may also serve documentation purposes, as it also contains more information about who started the call and the exact timestamp.
When the PBX disconnects a call because of one-way audio: This notification helps to track down hard-to-find cases when there are network problems with transporting RTP streams correctly. The notification contains a timestamp which can help identify PCAP traces that contain the packet data of the call.
When the PBX disconnects a call because it could not be established: This notification is triggered when the PBX was unable to locate the RTP destination for the other side of a call leg, and consequently did not send any RTP packets out. This is usually pointing at SIP protocol problems that need a in-depth investigation.
When a registration changes its address but keeps the call-ID: This case happens when the source address of a SIP registration changes. Although this is allowed in the SIP protocol, it causes gaps in the reach-ability of registered devices and almost always points at network problems. For example, when using routers that have small NAT translation tables with only few entries and drop oldest records in order to make room for new records. The administrator should make sure that those routers are replaced with devices that are able to properly handle NAT.
When the PBX received a BYE message and did not receive media just before the BYE: This message may hint at problems with the network setup. A typical scenario is that the user experiences network problems and does not receive media, and then decides to disconnect the call. Although technically correct, it almost certainly points at technical problems with the network and the extension used by the user.
When PBX blacklists an IP address: If the PBX detects an intrusion, it sends a notification email to the administrator about this event. It may mean that there is a hacking event going on, but it can also be caused by equipment that keeps on registering with a wrong password.
When paging playout fails: When messages are queued for playback from an paging account, they are usually guaranteed to be delivered. However it can happen that such a playback fails, for example because all handsets lost their registrations.
When call failed due to low credit: When using prepaid accounts, accounts can run out of money. In that case the PBX rejects a new call or tears down ongoing calls and delivers this notification.
When the number of trunk calls exceeds the threshold: For each domain, the system administrator can limit the number of calls that can be made on trunks in the according domain. The administrator can also specify a threshold that triggers sending out a notification when that limit gets close. This helps adjusting the value for the trunk call limitation.